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Kilen Woods Spruced Up by Volunteers
(Jackson, MN) - Volunteers added their GreenTouch to Kilen Woods State Park near Lakefield May 2.
Sponsored by Federated Rural Electric in Jackson, 35 volunteers consisting of co-op members, employees and Thrivent Financial for Lutherans' members helped spruce up Kilen Woods. About 20 Touchstone Energy Cooperatives across the state helped promote a clean-up day at the State Parks.
"Thanks to the nice weather we had a good turnout of volunteers, ranging in age from five to over 70 years old," stated Jon Beckman, Federated's marketing specialist. 'We scraped, painted and fixed picnic tables, raked and cleaned around the picnic area and Interpretive Center and washed windows. In addition, several volunteers remove branches and twigs from the scenic trails, clean out the fire pits and pick up branches in the campground and picnic area."
"I'd like to thank Federated and all the volunteers who participated in GreenTouch," added John Petersen, Kilen Woods park manager. "It shows a lot of people care about our natural resources and Kilen Woods State Park. Federated and the volunteers help us get ready for the summer picnic, hiking and camping season, donating nearly 120 hours of work. What they accomplished in one day would have taken one person about three weeks."
The volunteers received a free hot dog lunch and Touchstone Energy work gloves.
The GreenTouch program is a partnership between Minnesota's Touchstone Energy cooperatives and the Minnesota State Park System. Electric cooperatives throughout the state donate $40,000 a year to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to help fund the State Park guide and Junior Park Naturalist
program. Over the last nine years GreenTouch has organized nearly 5,000 volunteers who donated more than 16,000 hours taking care of Minnesota's State Parks.
Federated is a Touchstone Energy cooperative serving more than 5,000 members in Jackson and Martin Counties.